Sunday, April 20, 2008

Let's Stay Focused

Okay, Monday is going to be a spinorama of biblical proportions. All the usual suspects will be out, pointing to nefarious aspects, diversion, counters, basically a maelstorm of bullshitification. Just remember one thing:

The agent for the federal Conservative Party in the last general election "made materially false and misleading statements" on its financial returns, Canada's elections commissioner alleges in the court documents...

20 comments:

I have posted this a couple places now, but my favourite part so far is this (from the Star):

"One of those emails included an email by an employee at the party's media buying agency referring to a call from the head of the Conservative Fund, Irving Gerstein.

"They may be spending up to their legal limit on this campaign," wrote David Campbell advising others of Gerstein's call. "They are also thinking of 'switching' some of the time over to the ridings. It sounded like the reason was to legally maximize advertising expenditures.""

I am not saying it is true, but it sure justifies that warrant.

I challenge any and all CPC supporters to address this issue without mentioning Adscam.

Just a cautionary note - it is important to remember this is still unproven. We do not even know if charges will be laid. Search warrants always set out allegations but do not always result in evidence to support an offence.

To be honest, as much as I like to see the CPC squirm, I opposed releasing the search warrant until, and if, charges are proven. I believe it is unfair for anyone to have to defend themselves in the court of public opinion, but I do not feel sorry for Harper because we all know what he would be doing if it were the liberals under investigation.

I note from the G&M that ..."the material handed out to television networks by officials yesterday amounted to about 70 pages. Ryan Sparrow, a party spokesman, refused to explain when contacted by The Globe and Mail, why the Conservatives released only a portion of the documents."

One of those emails included an email by an employee at the party's media buying agency referring to a call from the head of the Conservative Fund, Irving Gerstein.

"They may be spending up to their legal limit on this campaign," wrote David Campbell advising others of Gerstein's call. "They are also thinking of 'switching' some of the time over to the ridings. It sounded like the reason was to legally maximize advertising expenditures."

Sure sounds like they were knowledgable about the fact they were going over their limit.

I notice the media invited in on Sunday included the Toronto Star, CTV and La Presse and excluded CanWest, CBC, Canadian Press and Macleans.

I was a bit surprised to see the Toronto Star on the list, and then disappointed to see that the article they ran last night didn't even mention they were among the special invited, whereas CTV explicitly mentioned this.

Anyway, some of the more colourful descriptions came from the excluded press:

The documents were supposed to be made public Monday, but a bizarre attempt by the Tories to get ahead of the news by briefing select reporters on Sunday led to a slapstick scene that saw party representatives switching hotels, slamming doors and scampering down fire exits to escape pointed questions from journalists who weren't invited to the meeting. [Canadian Press]

I like the analogy, my daughter just lies, when I ask if she pooped, "no".

wilson

Is that all you've got? Give it a few hours, I'm sure the party will come up with something for you to parrot. Maybe the ink on the warrant can be traced back to a firm that once contributed to the Liberals.